Simple Focaccia Bread Recipe
Ingredients
- 1½ cups water, room temperature
- 1 teaspoon active dry yeast
- 3 cups bread or all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon fresh rosemary, roughly chopped
- 1 teaspoon Kosher or fine sea salt
- 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil plus more to drizzle across the top
Toppings
- 2 cups cherry tomatoes, halved
- ½ - 1 head roasted garlic
- 1 tablespoon fresh rosemary
- Maldon salt
Instructions
- In a large bowl, stir together yeast and water and let sit for 10-15 minutes.
- Add olive oil, flour, rosemary and salt and mix until the flour is fully hydrated and no dry flour bits remain.
- Turn dough into a well-oiled 9x13-inch rectangular baking pan. With oiled hands, stretch the dough across the surface of the pan so that it is evenly distributed and about an inch thick. Cover and let rest somewhere warm for at least 1 hour (or as long as a full day) until it’s doubled in size.
- Once ready to bake, wet your hands and dimple the dough with your fingers pressing down to the bottom of the pan. Drizzle remaining tablespoon of olive oil across the top and add your toppings, gently pressing them into the dough.
- Bake at 450°F (230ºC) for 25-30 minutes until golden. Let cool for a few minutes, then loosen from the pan and transfer to a wire cooling rack for an additional 10-15 minutes. Slice and serve warm.
Notes
Flour: I like to use a hard wheat unbleached bread flour in my bread recipes to get a good crusty, chewy loaf. Hard wheat or ‘strong’ flour is made from hard wheat kernels and is a little more dense and higher in protein than other flours. Other bread or all-purpose flours can be used in all my bread recipes, as can good quality 1:1 gluten free blends with varying results in terms of both texture and appearance.
Roasted garlic: You can use jarred roasted garlic cloves, roast your own or simply thinly slice the cloves and add them directly to the top of the dough in step 5.
Dough: This is a highly hydrated dough and it will be wet and loose. Please resist the temptation to add more flour. It’s the stretchiness of the dough that will result in that lighter, crunchy texture.
Water temperature: Room temperature water at or near 70°F/21°C is best. If the water is too warm or too cold, the yeast may die and your loaf will not rise.
Rise temperature: An ambient rise temperature somewhere between ~70º-75º/20º-23ºC is ideal but even high 60's/18º-19ºC should work if the dough is kept away from drafts.
Baking pan: I like to use a deeper (cake) pan rather than a baking sheet to help retain moisture and prevent the loaf from drying out too quickly. I also find that it contributes to a higher rise.
To reheat: Focaccia is best the day it’s baked. Leftover focaccia can be reheated on a baking sheet at 350ºF (177ºC) for 5 minutes to regain its crispy texture. Focaccia may also be frozen in a zip-loc bag or airtight container for up to 1 month. Once thawed to room temperature, reheat as above.